


Messenger Bird's Song

by spurious



Category: KAT-TUN (Band), NewS (Band)
Genre: Angst, Love Triangle, M/M, community: jthreesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-28
Updated: 2011-07-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 22:13:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/230433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spurious/pseuds/spurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jin leaves, Kame and Yamapi stay behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Messenger Bird's Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [procreational](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=procreational).



> Written as a pinch hit for jthreesome 2008 and originally posted [here.](http://jthreesome.livejournal.com/12809.html) Thanks to Katie, as always.

Jin goes to America in October. In November, Yamapi and Kame run into each other in the elevator of the Jimusho building. The building is old, the elevator slow. Yamapi walks in on the seventh floor (Kame had been on the tenth) and Kame estimates they have a minute and a half for either awkward silence or awkward conversation. He nods his head to Yamapi, attempting an easy smile. Yamapi smiles back, and then there's a look of recognition on his face, as though he hadn't realized who Kame was.

"Kame!" he says, looking just slightly eager.

"Yamapi," Kame says, tentatively. "How are you?"

"Oh, you know," Yamapi says, flippant, "kind of bored. Not a lot to do."

Kame knows. He nods.

"You on your way home?"

"Yeah." Kame had been planning to spend the evening brushing Ran-chan and watching a romantic comedy.

"Do you want to get some coffee?" The elevator doors open when Yamapi speaks, and Kame is so startled by the question that he almost forgets to step out.

He considers the offer, studying Yamapi's shoes and remembering a phone conversation he had with his mother the day before. She had told him to eat right, to get more rest, like she always does. Then she had told him to make sure he has some fun, spends some time with his friends. He's not quite sure if this counts, but his mother always liked Yamapi.

"Okay," Kame says, after a moment. "How about that cafe down the block?"

Yamapi smiles and starts walking.

***

Coffee that day becomes coffee the next day, and the day after, when they realize their schedules seem to coincide a lot that week. Kame starts feeling comfortable with Yamapi again, as much as he ever can be. He laughs more easily, and he can see Yamapi sliding into the easy affection and camaraderie they developed during Nobuta: the more Kame relaxes, the more Yamapi likes him, and the more Yamapi likes him, the more Kame relaxes.

The third day they meet for coffee, Yamapi checks his phone while Kame orders a second cappuccino. When Kame returns to the table, Yamapi looks up, studying the drink in Kame's hand.

"You're going to be up all night," he says, mouth curved into a slight smile. Kame laughs.

"I'm sure I can handle it," he says, sipping from his cup.

"Well," Yamapi replies, "since you're going to be up anyway, why don't you come out with me? I'm going to a party."

"And you want me to come with you," Kame tries to keep the confusion out of his voice. He remembers parties Yamapi dragged him to during Nobuta: Yamapi laughing, surrounded by Shirota, Ryo, Jin. Kame thinks through the memories again. Something tells him this will be different (he knows why, but he prefers not to state it explicitly).

"-so hurry up and finish that," Yamapi's saying, and Kame glances down at the cup in his hands before taking a hurried gulp. He hisses as the liquid burns his tongue, and Yamapi laughs, nudging Kame's ankle under the table and admonishing him to be careful.

***

At the party, Yamapi sits next to Kame on Shirota's sofa. Ryo is on Yamapi's other side, and people are constantly pressing cool, damp bottles of beer into Kame's hands. His head feels light and he knows that he'll be a bit dizzy if he stands up. Yamapi's thigh is pressed up against his, warm through layers of denim, and when he laughs at Ryo's jokes, he leans back against Kame.

Ryo gets up but Yamapi stays put next to Kame. He tips the neck of his beer bottle, clinking it with Kame's.

"Cheers," Yamapi says.

"To what," Kame asks, even as he brings the bottle to his lips. Yamapi shrugs.

"Friendship between men?"

Kame smiles, a full, genuine grin, and downs the rest of his bottle. Fuzzy warmth spreads through his limbs, and he laughs, knocking his knee against Yamapi's. Yamapi finishes his bottle then, and no sooner have they set them down then Shirota walks over with two new ones, loudly proclaiming that no guests in his home shall ever go thirsty. Kame looks at his watch. It's just past one am. He doesn't have anything early the next morning, but he thinks maybe he should go before he gets more drunk.

Yamapi offers to take him home, and Kame declines, insisting that he'll be fine, Yamapi shouldn't trouble himself, but Yamapi won't take no for an answer, and Kame doesn't like to argue (if he's honest with himself, Kame wants this to happen), so they finish their drinks, then leave.

***

When they reach the front door of Kame's apartment, Kame invites Yamapi in for a glass of water before he goes home. Kame is reaching into one of his cabinets for a glass when he feels Yamapi tugging lightly on the hem of Kame's shirt. When Kame looks at him, Yamapi smiles sheepishly, as though he's been caught doing something he shouldn't.

"Hi," he says.

Kame pauses for a moment, one hand on the cabinet door. He looks down at Yamapi's hand, still on his shirt, and wets his lips slowly before leaning in to kiss Yamapi.

Yamapi's frozen with surprise for a moment, and Kame considers pulling away, claiming drunkenness (he's not that drunk), but then Yamapi starts to kiss back, tentative brushes of his lips against Kame's. The water glass sits forgotten on Kame's kitchen counter.

***

Kame wakes up too warm and too early in his bed, pulled from sleep by the ringing of a phone that's not his own. Kame always wakes up at the same time every day, roused by his internal clock: waking up any other way disorients him, and it takes a few moments for him to process what's going on. His first realization is that it's Yamapi's phone ringing; his second realization is that they are both fully clothed.

Yamapi rolls out of Kame's bed, cursing under his breath, and gropes around on the floor for his jacket. Kame watches him pull out his phone, flip it open and hold it to his ear.

"Bakanishi," Yamapi says, and Kame pulls the covers over his head, pretending to be asleep.

"It's not even five in the morning here," Yamapi is trying to keep his voice down, but Kame can hear him clearly. "Wait," he's saying, "isn't it the middle of the day there? Why are you drunk dialing me _now_? No. No, I can't talk. I'm trying to sleep. I'm hanging up now, Jin..."

Kame listens to the pause before Yamapi actually hangs up. There's a tense moment as Kame hears Yamapi stand up and wonders if he knows Kame's awake. If he does, Yamapi doesn't show it; he pulls the blankets up on the other side of the bed, grabs his jacket, and leaves, quietly. Kame tries to go back to sleep for about half an hour, then gives it up as a lost cause and gets up to make coffee.

***

Kame discovers Yamapi's sunglasses on his floor later that morning, when he's getting ready to leave. He tucks them into a pocket of his bag and sends Yamapi a short message: _I have your sunglasses._

He gets a reply while he's sitting on the train: _How much do you want for the ransom, kidnapper-san?_

Kame tries to hold back a loud burst of laughter, but he still wakes up the old lady dozing in the seat next to him. When he's calmed down, he types out his reply. _Dinner will do. When are you free?_

***

They go to dinner the next evening. Yamapi tries to insist on paying, to properly "ransom" his sunglasses, but Kame is just as insistent about splitting the bill.

"I'm buying you a drink," Yamapi says faux-indignantly as they exit the restaurant, pushing on sunglasses and pulling down hats.

"If you must," Kame concedes. The backs of their hands brush as they make their way through the crowded streets.

***

They go to a club, where Yamapi ends up buying Kame two drinks, sitting at the very end of the bar, tucked into the corner. They're leaning close to each other so they can hear, and Kame's hand rests on Yamapi's knee, keeping him balanced. They more they talk, the more Kame realizes he and Yamapi have a lot in common: not, perhaps, in interests, but in the way they see the world. Kame interrupts Yamapi in the middle of a discussion about their schedules to tell him, with the seriousness of someone who's a little bit drunk, that he's always respected Yamapi's dedication to work.

Yamapi blinks, taken by surprise for a moment, then blushes and looks down. Kame can see the barest hint of the smile Yamapi's trying to hide.

"Same to you," Yamapi says, then raises his glass. Kame smiles at him, feeling a slight blush rise in his cheeks.

"Maybe today I can walk you home," Kame says.

***

The whole way to Yamapi's apartment, Yamapi is brushing casual touches to Kame's waist, hip, the small of his back. Kame is wound up, fueled a little by alcohol and mostly by the intoxicating effect of being the object of Yamapi's full attention, and he barely has his shoes off before he slides his arms around Yamapi's neck and pulls him in for a kiss.

Yamapi stumbles slightly and Kame pitches backward, backing up into the door. He hits his head and they break the kiss to laugh, foreheads together. Yamapi hooks his fingers in the waistband of Kame's jeans, knuckles rubbing against Kame's hipbone. Kame shivers, his breath hitching.

***

Stretched out on Yamapi's bed, with Yamapi's lips slipping down over his cock, Kame wonders fleetingly if this is how Yamapi sucks Jin off.

***

Kame wakes up before Yamapi and climbs out of bed, pulls on his jeans and goes to the kitchen to make coffee. The smell is beginning to fill the apartment when Yamapi ambles in, wearing a pair of pajama pants Kame had noticed on the floor when he got up. Yamapi yawns, stretching, and Kame watches the muscles in his abdomen shift, mouth slightly dry.

"You made coffee," Yamapi says, somewhere between surprised and delighted. He opens a cabinet and pulls out two mugs, handing one to Kame. Kame drinks his coffee black because he doesn't like it diluted. It took him a while to get used to the taste, bitter and strong, but now he can't wake up without it. He remembers arguing with Jin; he always forgot and tried to add sugar to Kame's coffee. He watches Yamapi drop several spoonfuls of sugar into his own mug.

***

Kame and Yamapi have a total of three conversations about Jin: during the first two, they're both drunk, and it escalates into some of the best sex they ever have together. The third one is a fight.

***

Kame gets an email from Jin on April 15th: _I'm coming back._ Kame feels a lump in his throat. The corners of his mouth twitch from smile to frown, then back again. He flips his cell phone closed, then back open. Hits "reply". He types and deletes several messages, ranging from a terse "good," to a sarcastic "we don't want you anymore," to an emoji-filled "yatta~ ," but none of them seem right. Eventually, he settles on _When?_

After that, he's about to call Yamapi when the realization of what's going on suddenly hits him. He stares at his cell phone for a moment, paralyzed by confusion. They can't, shouldn't, do this anymore, Kame knows this, but he doesn't want to give it up. As he's trying to talk himself into or out of depriving himself of a friendship, his phone blinks to life in his hand.

"Has he told you yet?" Yamapi asks, edge of glee evident in his voice.

 

ººº

 

Jin tells Yamapi about all the girls he fucked in America: blondes, brunettes, redheads; girls taller than him with legs that went on for miles and tits so big they could be anime characters; short girls who screamed and pulled Jin's hair and told him exactly what they wanted done to them; girls who liked to be on top; girls who liked to suck dick; girls who didn't but did it well enough anyway; enough girls that Yamapi makes Jin promise to get an STD test before he'll let him back into his bed.

"Come on," Jin says, grinning lasciviously, "don't tell me you didn't get any action while I was gone."

Yamapi's brain helpfully supplies him with an image of Kame, back arched, body gleaming with sweat, moaning Yamapi's name. He shrugs noncommittally.

"Oh, I got some," he says, "your mom gave me a few nights to remember."

Jin shrieks and throws a pillow at him, and Yamapi continues, giggling, "she even gave me a discount on the usual rates!"

***

Yamapi walks in on Jin having a phone conversation with Kame. He recognizes the tense way Jin holds his shoulders, the tone of his voice. It sounds like they're talking about work, probably some scheduling thing that Kame's too worried about and Jin doesn't care enough about, something boring, but Yamapi can't help but listen in. Jin's never used this voice with him.

***

As Yamapi sits hunched over a textbook he never bothered to open before, trying to study for an exam that's in a few hours' time, he gets an email from Kame: _Good luck on your exam!_ Yamapi doesn't remember telling Kame about his exam, but then, he'd forgotten about it entirely until last night, when he got a reminder message from his manager (who's saved his ass more than once by knowing his school schedule), so he assumes he just forgot about telling Kame. The message takes him by surprise, still, and he grins, sends a reply asking Kame to dinner that evening.

***

Yamapi comes home from dinner with Kame to find Jin dozing on the couch. There's a pizza box on the counter, half-eaten, and Yamapi wraps up the rest and puts it in the refrigerator before easing himself onto the small bit of couch space Jin has left open. He turns on the TV and starts tickling Jin's ankles, which earns him a reflexive kick to the ribs when Jin suddenly wakes up.

"Where were you," he mumbles, stretching.

"Dinner," Yamapi answers, tickling the sole of Jin's foot now.

Jin asks "with who?" and Yamapi briefly considers lying, but he doesn't lie to his friends. He takes a breath and prepares for the worst before answering. "Kame."

Jin's snort of laughter is unexpected. He takes advantage of Yamapi's distraction to reclaim his feet, sitting up a little more.

"I can see why you'd like to eat with Kame," Jin says, "you can eat your own food _and_ all of his."

Jin stretches his leg out to poke at the back of Yamapi's knee with his toes, and Yamapi swats him away, laughing. Normally, he can predict exactly how Jin will react to something. Kame, Yamapi thinks, is the one wild card.

***

The next morning, Yamapi's favorite jeans are gone and all of the yogurt in the fridge has been eaten. He has leftover pizza for breakfast, cursing Jin's weird taste as he picks anchovies out of the cheese.

***

Jin climbs into bed with Yamapi that night, sliding up against Yamapi's back. He doesn't say anything, just presses cool fingertips against Yamapi's hips, nudges Yamapi's jaw with slightly parted lips. Yamapi was almost asleep, so it takes him a moment to process what's going on, even as his body begins to react to Jin's touch.

He opens his mouth to speak but moans instead, voice low and husky, when Jin starts sucking on his neck, palming his cock. There's something odd, though, in the way Jin starts jerking Yamapi off. His sleep-foggy mind searches for what it might be, and then Yamapi realizes: Jin is doing this exactly the same way that Kame does. Yamapi stiffens slightly with confusion, and Jin's smile against his shoulder confirms it.

 

ººº

 

Jin and Yamapi don't talk about Kame. They don't talk about him long enough that Jin almost forgets about it; that is, until Yamapi walks into a KAT-TUN photoshoot, waiting for Jin to be ready to go out to dinner. Jin sees Kame and Yamapi exchange looks, smiles, and something twists uncomfortably in his stomach. From then on, Jin _aggressively_ doesn't talk about Kame.

***

Yamapi's gone for a week, filming somewhere on location. The third day he's gone, Jin calls Kame. He's almost surprised when Kame answers, the sounds of the city loud in the background. Jin hadn't planned what to say. They exchange brief, meaningless pleasantries and then there's an awkward silence.

"Jin?" Kame says, his voice crackling over the line.

"Yeah?"

"Did you want something?" Kame's tone is brisk, almost dismissive, like he's trying to get the conversation over with quickly.

"Are you busy?" Jin asks, realizing as he says it that it's a stupid question.

"Yes," Kame answers. He doesn't elaborate.

"Oh," Jin says. He feels like an idiot but presses on anyway: "How about tomorrow? Or the day after?"

He hears Kame sigh.

"Busy," he says. "Sorry, I have to go."

"Okay, bye," Jin says, and hears the click of Kame hanging up.

***

Most nights, Jin and Yamapi share a bed. Sometimes they have loud, enthusiastic sex; sometimes they roll around and fumble with each other, kissing and laughing. Most of the words exchanged are things like "turn over," "right there," and _"yes."_ Jin likes it that way.

***

"Kame," Jin says, standing in the door of the dressing room. Kame doesn't look up.

"What," he mumbles in response.

 _"Kame,"_ Jin says again, frustrated. Kame doesn't look up, or answer him. Jin steps into the room, slamming the door shut. He approaches Kame and grabs the collar of his shirt, pulls him up from the couch.

 _"What?"_ Kame says again. He seems genuinely confused.

 _Why won't you pay attention to me?_ is what Jin wants to say, but he knows how childish that sounds, so he doesn't. Instead, he leans in. Kame shoves him away before their lips meet, and Jin stumbles a little, shaken, but reaches out again, pulling Kame towards him. Kame turns his head but doesn't move away, so Jin pushes a little further, leaning in and running his tongue over the spot under Kame's jaw where Jin can feel his heart starting to race.

A few seconds pass, Jin kissing Kame's neck, and then Kame reaches out, fisting his hands in Jin's shirt. Jin bites down, and Kame makes a sound somewhere between a moan and a growl and unbuttons Jin's pants. Jin goes for Kame's, and somehow they end up turned around so that when Kame shoves Jin, he stumbles backward and lands on the sofa, pants around his knees. As Jin tries to catch his breath, Kame climbs into his lap.

Jin tilts his head up but Kame avoids his gaze, rests his forehead on Jin's shoulder and grabs his cock. Jin follows along, starts jerking Kame off. He can feel Kame muffling moans into his shoulder, shifting against him, and Jin's almost too distracted to notice Yamapi standing in the doorway. He tries not to react visibly, just meets Yamapi's gaze and curls his free hand around the back of Kame's neck. Kame pulls on Jin's hair and Jin's head tilts back; when he looks again, Yamapi's hand is in his pants. Jin whimpers, bites his bottom lip.

Kame grinds his hips down against Jin's lap, demanding in a way Jin never remembers Kame being, and he tries to keep up, all the while feeling Yamapi's eyes on him. It makes Jin feel trapped, almost, between the two of them, but there's something comforting in it, something that makes Jin think this is the right place for him, or as close to the right place as he's going to get.

He looks up, then, and sees Yamapi shudder, biting down on his lower lip, feels Kame's fingernails digging into his skin, and Jin lets go, groaning against Kame's neck.


End file.
